February 5, 2015

For some writers it is the amount of writing they want to do. They can’t seem to reach that word goal or the number of pages.

Other writers want to break into a specific market. It could be picture books or children’s fantasy. Yet, they are earning nothing but rejections.

Or it could be an earning goal. Maybe you want to earn enough to pay your son’s tuition but you aren’t anywhere close.

Whatever it is, I’m asking you to take a look at your approach. Consider the first time you tried to meet this goal. What steps did you take?

Now think about the second attempt. What steps did you take that time?

And the third attempt or the fourth attempt or the eighth. What steps did you take? Were they the exact same steps or very similar steps each time? If so, shake things up.

For many of us, try, try again means try the same way time and time again. We don’t change our approach in any meaningful way because we’re sure that we just didn’t try hard enough, weren’t lucky enough or somehow missed the big break, the secret handshake or the golden ticket.

I’d like to challenge you. If you’ve been trying to meet a certain goal and failing, shake up your approach. Can’t reach your word count goals? Quit putting off your writing until you get home from work. Maybe you’re a morning writer. Try writing before work or during lunch. Can’t break into your chosen market? Don’t just set word count goals or a goal to send out a certain number of queries. Take a class. Go to a conference and network.